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Kent State Today will follow a group of six Golden Flashes for the 2024-25 academic year chronicling their efforts and successes during the fall and spring semesters. The group of students are at various places in their �鶹��ý academic careers and will share their experiences throughout the year as they take part in our distinctive programs, research and global experiences.  

Muna Koirala is not shy about admitting that her first year in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design has been a challenge.

“First year, the struggle is real,” Koirala said with a chuckle when asked to sum up her academic year so far.

Like many first-year students, Koirala feels a bit overwhelmed as she strives to find the right balance to keep up with her rigorous coursework and have time for her job and other activities.

Things improve month by month, and Koirala is far from defeated.  

“I’m still learning a lot of things, but I feel like it’s OK for me to make the mistakes that I did,” she said, “My progress isn’t going to be the same as anyone else.”

Koirala is the oldest daughter of Bhutanese immigrants who, to escape persecution, fled to Nepal, where she was born in 2005, and later immigrated to the United States and to Northeast Ohio in 2013. Her family includes her parents, two younger sisters, paternal grandparents and uncle, so finding affordable housing where they could live comfortably together was always a challenge, a reality that sparked Koirala’s interest in housing as a career.

Keeping her eye on that goal of one day creating affordable housing for others is what keeps her plugging away as she takes on the challenges of her coursework and lab projects.

At times, Koirala admits she has found herself stuck in her doubt. She worries that a project will not work out, so instead of just charging forward, making a mistake, and starting over again, she can get bogged down and struggle to move forward.

One of her professors advised her to just keep trying, and if something doesn’t work out, to move ahead with something new. But that’s hard for Koirala. She feels more comfortable plotting out just how something will end up before she jumps in. What she is learning, though, is that college is forcing her to think and work outside her normal comfort zone.

“My progress isn’t as linear as I had hoped but it’s progress that will set me up for success in my future as a student and as a professional,” she said. “With that success, I will continue to make mistakes, but they will be newer mistakes that come with learning something new.”  

This semester, she joined Alpha Rho Chi (APX), the national fraternity for architecture and the allied arts. The organization is dedicated to uniting members for fellowship and friendship based on their mutual interest in professional development.

She also attended her first meeting of NOMAS, Kent State’s branch of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students.

“I want to be more involved in clubs and I am excited about that,” she said. NOMAS will be hosting some activities over the summer leading up to a competition in October, in which Koirala is hoping to participate.

She also continues to play in the badminton club at the Warren Student Recreation and Wellness Center, as her schedule permits.

Koirala continues to seek help from her professors and has sought tutoring for the trigonometry class on her schedule. Even when projects don’t work out as well as she had hoped, Koirala knows that she is learning from every step and misstep.

“I’m still pushing myself to do what I can,” she said, “I definitely don’t want to give up.”

In addition, she has befriended two graduate students who have been willing to offer guidance. 

“When I am unsure about something, I go and talk to them about it,” she said. “They have been in my shoes before and sometimes all we need is someone to tell us that it’s going to be OK so that we can move forward and keep trying. I always say, give yourself some grace, tell yourself it will be OK, and just keep going.”